This study originated from the recognition that appropriate advertising message appeal strategies are needed that consider the characteristics of charitable giving (donation) and potential donors, and that ultimately more effective advertising strategies need to be developed. Specifically, this study aimed to present implications for effective donation advertising messages by revealing the moderating effect of the psychological variable of self-construal (independent vs. interdependent) on the influence that advertising message characteristics—namely, donation motive appeal types (egoistic benefits vs. altruistic benefits) and message framing types (positive vs. negative)—have on donation intention. The results showed that the effect of message framing type on donation intention was moderated by self-construal type. In the independent self-construal group, positive framing was found to be more effective than negative framing on donation intention, while in the interdependent self-construal group, the effect according to framing type was not statistically significant, although the direction was as expected. Regarding the interaction between donation motive and self-construal, altruistic benefit appeals were found to be more effective on donation intention than egoistic benefit appeals regardless of self-construal type. In the interdependent self-construal group, altruistic benefit appeals were more effective than egoistic benefit appeals as hypothesized, but in the independent self-construal group, the interaction with donation motive appeared in the opposite direction from the hypothesized expectation. Finally, it was confirmed that self-construal moderated the effect of the interaction between donation motive and message framing on donation intention. In the independent self-construal group, appealing altruistic benefits with positive framing was most effective, while in the interdependent self-construal group, appealing altruistic benefits with negative framing showed greater effectiveness. This study made an empirical contribution to research on the persuasion effects of donation advertising messages by incorporating not only advertising message characteristics but also consumer psychological characteristic variables in the model and examining their interactions, and its practical significance lies in providing guidelines on the direction of donation advertising messages for practitioners in nonprofit organizations.